


Minato on the Cliff by the Sea

by Tumtumthomasto



Category: Gake no Ue no Ponyo | Ponyo, Persona 3, Persona Series
Genre: M/M, Ponyo, it's almost a ponyo au but mainly mermaids, mermaid, mermaid!minato, miki is alive in this which is nice, young akihiko and baby miki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-16
Updated: 2015-11-16
Packaged: 2018-05-01 23:13:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5224676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tumtumthomasto/pseuds/Tumtumthomasto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For a friend of mine I wrote a weird sort of Ponyo au for Persona 3. It's about little mermaid Minato interacting with a young Akihiko and Miki!</p>
<p>This is my first work up on this site, hopefully it will be enjoyed!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Minato on the Cliff by the Sea

A gull cries out onto the sea, it's shrill howls echoing out against the soft lull of the sea lapping against the shoreline. The moan and wail of boat horns were lost to the island, their signals droning on in the far distance to be unnoticed until they approached. Akihiko yawns, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. The early morning fog settled coolly at his skin, picking at him with a chill that causes him to shiver.  
"Bubby, Bubby...BUBBY." Miki's voice grows more forceful with each word, her tiny hands grasping at his own in a vice grip as she tugged him down the road.  
"I'm..." another yawn, "I'm coming, the ocean isn't going anywhere." 

Miki huffs impatiently, letting go of his hand to fold her arms against her chest and pout. She stomped down the pavement towards the ocean like an angry troll, crushing the weeds that lined the cracks in the worn asphalt. He couldn't quite blame her, she was only five years old. He himself did not have a lot of room to judge anyways, seeing he's no less a child then she. He was only eight.  
Miki, everyday, takes the two of them down to the sea in the morning. /Early/ in the morning, six am to be precise. The waning time after night, the crisp and bitter beginnings of the day where the fog still clung to the air and the sea still looked of moonlight and stardust, that was the time. It was nearly ritualistic of the two, a recurring event that's been present for as long as Miki had the sense to want to go to the sea.  
"Bubby, walk faster." She whispers, deciding that dragging him hadn't worked all that well in her favor.  
He thinks that maybe it is her enthusiasm, her wonder towards something they see every day, that keeps him coming back with her. Looking down at his sister, he's met with the firy crimson of her eyes, same as his own, but within her own lies a determination that only resides in the youngest of children. 

The youngster ducks down the dirt path alongside the road, silver-pigtails vanishing with a bob of her head as she slid down the bank. Gravel and dirt rustle loudly in her wake, sticks cracking as her excited footsteps lead her to trample and romp through the underbrush. Akihiko watches as his sister heads out down the pathway towards the ocean, sliding a bit more cautiously down the bank himself, staying his descent with an outstretched hand.  
"BUBBY!!!" Miki wails, hopping up and down across the way, kicking up sand and waving her arms before cupping her hands to her mouth and yelling again, "AKI!"  
"Miki, I'm coming...I'm coming!" He shakes his head, dusting the sand from his backside before making his way over to her again. She beamed up at him, flashing a toothy grin as she waved her yellow sand pail around cheerfully.

"C'mon!" She chirps, pulling him across the shore in search of her favorite spot. At some point growing up, Miki had decided that she had located the best part of the beach, closest to their home atop the hillside. How she keeps up with it, locates the same place each time (despite no noticeable landmarks) is beyond him.

"A-ha!" She cheers, swinging the sand-filled bucket about. Running about in a few happy circles, she soon kicks off her flip-flops, tossing them in his direction. Akihiko scoops up the shoes, watching her play for a moment before sitting down at the edge of the water. The sound of Miki's laughter drowns out most of the ambiance, but still he strains his ears to listen to the sounds of the ocean. Despite his slight annoyance with his younger sibling, this everyday event was one of the best parts of his days. His peers out across the surface of the water, watching as the boats sailed on as mere speckles of color in his vision. He wonders, briefly, if his parents are on any of those distance sea-speckles. They worked away at the furthest recessions of the sea, day in and day out, leaving him to care for his sister and patiently assure her that one day they will indeed return. It's a lonely process, knowing that something so precious is just out of reach, the cool ocean waves acting as a wall ot separate their family. But, money is money, as his father would explain, their jobs supported the lives he and his sister had and for that, he is willing to wait as many days as it takes for them to come home. With a contented sigh confirming his resolve, followed by a soft yawn, he allows his eyes to flutter closed.  
Leaning back, he lays there in the sand as Miki wailed of her discoveries in a stagnant pool. Crabs most likely, he snickers to himself when imagining the rambunctious kid being pinched, serves her right for stirring up the crab's water. A smile creases his lips and for a few minuets he is contented just listening to the sea and his sister but, suddenly things grow silent. 

Before he can even sit up, even open his eyes to inspect the shift in atmosphere he is met with:  
"SAND-PIE!" 

Miki dumps an entire bucket of wet sand down the back of his shirt and he feels his soul exit his body. An inhuman wail bursts from him as he jerks forwards, jumping up from the ground to try and shake the sand from within his shirt.  
"MIKI! MIKI OH MY GOD! WHY!? WHY WHY WHY!" He howls, tugging his shirt from off his back, waving it about to dislodge the wet globs of sand that stuck to the material. He can't help but feel as if he had it coming, he let his guard down in the presence of a mischievous kid. She laughs and laughs, doubling over and falling onto the ground in throes of giggles at her successful endeavor. Akihiko's face fits into a nasty scowl at the child rolling about the sand, his wails lowering to disgruntled murmurs.  
"I gotchu." She slurs in between wheezes and laughs, squeezing her eyes shut to laugh even more. Akihiko continues to shake and wave his shirt about, up until the point it slips from his fingers and is caught in the wind to skirt out across the ocean.  
Just great.  
"No!" He groans, reaching out to the shirt as it flies away despite the futility of it. Miki blinks in astonishment, sitting on her knees in the sand and observing as his shirt settled atop the water to rock back and forth with the waves.  
"I'ma get it." She says, almost apologetically. Darting out towards the sea, Miki soon realizes the shirt is further out than her hight can compensate for. She squeaks as the water tickles her thighs, holding up the ends of her skirt before sloshing back towards Akihiko.  
"You'll have to go get it, I can't reach." She says, looking more at the ground than at him. "S-Sorry Bubby." She continues, digging her toe into the sand nervously. He sighs, ruffling her already mused silver hair and offering the girl a grin.  
"It's okay, I'm not /that/ mad...I'll get it." He says, receiving the return of Miki's smile as his reward.

It's not that he hasn't waded out into the ocean before, he lives on an island. It's almost a given to explore the waters when one lives in such a place as this. It's just the water is murky, unclear and quite frankly littered. One likes to believe the waters are much cleaner, that the ships that collect sea garbage really get it all, but that's not always the case. Plus, when you can't see the bottom, you're likely to step on jellyfish or other unsightly sea demons. Akihiko grits his teeth, recalling the concerned tone of his mother when explaining the "safe" distance of ocean exploration to Miki and himself. When they were much younger, Miki a babbling baby and himself an all too dangeorusly curious kid, she'd had to give reason to her wariness of their sea adventures. Wandering out to far gives way to the dangers only exposed by beasts that swim towards shallow ends, sharks for example. The turbid depths of the sea looks inviting, but naturally, one must be careful.

Akihiko whines as he observes his shirt's swift act of skirting the line of safety that she had spoken of.  
With only a single glance more, Akihiko swallows his fear.

"Get it Bubby! It's getting away!" Miki cheers from the shoreline as he wades further and further out into the water. His legs vanish into the tide as he abandons all hope of keeping his pants dry, soon he is waist deep into the sea, the ocean lapping at his hips as if it were composed of a thousand tiny fingers. A chill racks up his spin as he feels something brush against him, breath hitching more so when a wave rushes in to topple him over.

He feels his head go underwater, breath knocked straight from him in one fell swoop. Saltwater gushes into his mouth and he gags beneath the waves, fingers laced tightly to the fabric of the T-Shirt, lucky of him to hook a finger in the sleeve even as the waves knock him further out into the sea. Forcing his legs to kick, his arms to wave, Akihiko urges his panic-ridden form to attempt reaching the surface.

It dawns on him that a simple shirt wasn't something worth drowning over.

Miki's voice washes in and out each time he nearly reaches the surface of the water again, a sputtering cough ripped from him as he barely pokes his head above the waves, more water soon rushed over his shape. Akihiko desperately fights against the tide that so desperately worked to drag him out towards death.  
With a furious kick and urgent flail of his arms, he finally finds that his feet can once again touch the bottom. Curling his toes into the sea-floor he accepts the small victory. Akihiko coughs and wheezes, mouthfuls of disgusting sand and salty-spit tumbling from his throat. The boy makes an attempt to tug the shirt from it's limp state in the water, only to find it caught on something. He grunts weakly, pulling at it with more force and Miki continues to scream at him to get out of the water. Akihiko shakes his head, digging his feet into the sand where he stood, waist deep in the sea, in a n odd tug-of-war against the strange force. 

"BUBBY!! IT'S A SHARK! GET OUT GET OUT!" She howls, stomping her feet against the beach furiously. Her hands alternating between waving and pointing at the flicker-flash of a fin close to her brother.  
"Sharks don't eat shirts Miki! It's just stuck...or....?"  
He grows silent, feeling something brush against his leg. He blinks, squinting out into the darkened waters to find a fish-like shape near him. It was certainly big enough to be a shark. Panic grips him once more.

"No no no! Shoo! Go away!" He shrieks in uselessly, violently trying to yank his shirt away from the force only to find it suddenly pulling back. He's tugged back under the water again despite his standing position, Miki's final scream being lost under the crash of a wave.  
Akihiko kicked and thrashed against what he can only assume is a shark, or some freakishly large fish. His free hand scaling up the shirt to find that something frighteningly akin to hands is gripping the other end. Lifting his head above the water to breathe he's met with the harsh slap of a wave before ducking back under the water and sending a sharp kick in the direction of the person--or fish that had snagged his shirt. It releases suddenly, sending him flopping backwards.  
"GO! GO!" Miki continues, another wave of frightened cheers erupting from her tiny shape as she urged her brother to reach the shore again.

With shirt in tow he wades back towards the shoreline, throwing the wet glob that was his shirt to the dry sand to land grossly against the ground. Miki scoops it up in her arms, getting herself just as soggy as the shirt. Making his way back to the shore, he is stopped once more by a hand fitting tightly around his ankle.  
"Okay, I've had justa'bout enough of--" His words hang dead in his throat as a person's head emerges from the water. 

A million questions rush through his mind at that moment. Why had someone been out so far in the ocean? Why had they been after his shirt, messing with him this whole time? Why...did they have no legs but instead a long...blue...fish-tail?

The shallowness of the water allows for enough room to swim idly, but also enough room to actually /see/ through the water. What had clasped onto his ankle was none other than a human hand, attached to a human arm, scaling up a human torso belonging to a boy with a mess of blue hair framing his pale face. It was just that the humanity stopped there, any trace of it vanishing with fins protruding from his back, leading up to a tail. Thin scales, no bigger than a fingernail each, molded together along the tail, webbing together at the tip to thin further out into the caudal fin. Akihiko's eyes grow as wide as saucers, the air stolen from him with more force than when the ocean had crashed into him. His eight-year-old mind struggled to decide whether it was more appropriate to be afraid or enamored. Miki must have seen it too for she was equally as quiet. The boy blinks, a fair few droplets of water dislodge from his eyelashes as he does. Akihiko, in his confusion and fear can't help but find the creature strangely beautiful.

"It'sa mermaid! Mermaid! MERMAID!!!" Miki screams, dropping the gross shirt and starting to run out towards the water.  
"Miki! NO! It could be dangerous...w-we don't know about these things! Stay back!" He says, cautiously trying to move his foot only to find the creature tightening it's grip. He shivers, feeling the fish-boy drum a finger against his heel. Akihiko stares down at him, the boy offering him a similar stare.  
Were mermaids sentient? Did they even speak the same language as people? Did they even have a form of dialect? Did they eat people like they do in the old wives tales? He finds it in himself to know that Ariel, the little mermaid, probably isn't the best model of what a real mermaid would be like. 

"Shoo!" He waves his hands, trying to signal to the mermaid to leave.  
"Shoo! Shoo!" Miki echoes from a distance, stomping a foot with a splash against the shore. 

The mermaid narrows it's eyes at the two of them, "Sh...shoo." It repeats, pausing to test the reaction of the humans.

Akihiko waves his arms more, Miki mimicking his movements.  
"No, you shoo! Lemme go!"

"Shoo. Shoo." It repeats again, taking it's other hand and curling it's fingers around Akihiko's other ankle. Akhiko moans in frustration, how on earth was this happening to him? He starts walking backwards, dragging the mermaid with him with each step. It continues to make "shoo" sounds at him, grip notwithstanding, it's tail swaying back and forth idly as he moves.  
Miki waddles backwards, squawking at her brother and the creature latched onto him.  
It must be having fun, for a small but sly smile creases the lips of the creature as it's pulled around by Akihiko's halfhearted efforts to escape.  
"Let me go! Please let me go! I'm sorry for...er, invading your territory! I just wanted my shirt back, the wind had blown it out there. Let me go please." He rambles, shaking his legs awkwardly to receive little movement from the fish.  
"Shoo~." It coos at him and Akihiko scowls. This was some sort of game, he knew it.

"That's it. I'll beach you!" He threatens, the creature tilts it's head slightly. He starts to walk backwards with intent, fire in his eyes as he brings the mermaid closer and closer to the shallower ends to where it couldn't swim. The creature makes a sound of discontent in the back of it's throat, it's tail dragging against the sand more and more as Akihiko struggles to compensate for it's weight.  
"Hnnngh! Let. Me. Go!" Growling, he pulls once more with his legs, earning himself a rough slap of water against his face as the mermaid thrashes it's tail at him. A spray of water washing over him quick enough to sting. Miki has it in her to laugh, snickering at his misfortune.

He stumbles and falls backwards, the mermaid releasing him once again to fall into the water. 

"Finally!" He howls, crawling away from the water to reach the shore at last.  
The mermaid flips over and pulls himself back out into the swimming depth, eyeing Miki and himself from the water. 

"Ha! I got you fish!" Akihiko says, triumphantly placing his hands on his hips and sticking out his tongue rather childishly.  
It narrows it's eyes again, almost in a glare.  
"You hurt his feelings." Miki says, suddenly on the side of the mermaid. She punches him in the leg, earning a bitter yelp from her brother. "He jus' wanted to play." She continues, pointing out at the mermaid with a deeply settled frown.  
"Go say sorry! Go, Aki, say sorry."

"Miki! It could have--he could have eaten me, Miki! Mermaids are known to be like...tricksters! People-eaters! He wants me back out there so he can drag me off and drown me!" Akihiko argues, folding his arms against his bare chest.  
"If he wanted to eat 'chu...you wouldn't be over here talking to me! You'dve been eated already!" She argues right back, crossing her arms in a similar fashion. The mermaid remains in the same place, as if agreeing with Miki silently, waiting.  
Akihiko rolls his eyes, stepping out cautiously into the water again.  
"Miki I don't even think he can talk...he's probably never seen many humans before..." He thinks out lout, wading out slowly towards him again.

"I...um, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to beach you," He says, stopping at arms-length from the mermaid. "I just was...scared of you." He admits, earning a nod from the mermaid.  
"Most people are." It replies, raising a hand to brush a clump of it's wet hair from one eye, looking Akihiko over with an nearly vacant gaze. "...never wanted to eat you." It adds softly. Miki comes crashing in moments later after that final statement, the water much higher on her shape (which she quickly disregards.)  
"See, Aki, I told you. Mermaids are nice...erm," She pauses, flicking her gaze from her brother to the fish, "Are you lonely, Mr. Mermaid?" She asks before quickly adding, "Did you come aaaaaaaaaaaall the way out here to come play with us?!" Her arms go up in a wide gesture, eyes twinkling as she speaks. The mermaid's steely blue gaze follows her motions before responding with a silent nod. Akihiko narrows his eyes at it, why would a mermaid want to spend time with people? Isn't it like a given that humans kill the things they don't understand? Not that Miki and himself could act as much a danger to this creature, being only just children, but seeking out any human could end...unpleasantly for such a being as this. Akihiko furrows his brow in thought as Miki continues to fire off questions to the fish.  
"What's your name? I'm Miki!" She squeaks.  
"Minato."  
"Ah!" Aki! His name is Minato! Isn't that cool!" She yells as if he hadn't heard the mermaid's words, and as if he wasn't within earshot. Scowling at her nature to yell he does his best to draw himself from his thoughts.  
"Um...I am Akihiko, she's my sister...sorry that she's so loud." The mermaid nods as if to agree that the little girl splashing around in the water excitedly was perhaps, /slightly/ annoying.

"A mermaid! A mermaid! Mermaid Minato! I got to talk to a mermaid! M. E. R. M. A. D!" Miki runs around in the shallow water, giggling and waving her arms about in a fit of excitement Akihiko has yet to see in her before. He chuckles to himself, maybe this wasn't all so bad.  
However, he almost jumps out of his skin when he finds the same hands as before curling slowly around his ankles, anchoring him in place.  
"Akihiko..." The mermaid starts, voice a low, calm, hum. He shivers, resisting the urge to shake the mermaid off again.  
"Y-yeah?"  
"You and...Miki come here often?" It states more as a fact than a question, Akihiko responding with a firm nod.  
"Come back, please."

"WE WILL COME BACK EVERY DAY! EVERY DAY AKI! WE WILL WE WILL!" Miki responds before he can even open his mouth, Minato not even phased by her wailing. 

"But why? Aren't you...worried? We could be bad people, you could be seen or-or hurt by other people! Don't you have other mermaid friends! It's probably safer for you out in the deep sea than out here in the...gross...shallow stuff!" Akihiko protests, finding himself strangely worried for Minato's wellbeing. The reason, what little reason he can sum up in his head, is because...it's not everyday magical creatures become more than fiction. Something so...so...beautiful, so cool, should be allowed to live in safety, even if he does deeply wish to see him again.  
The mermaid sighs, as if the process of coming up with an explanation is an extremely onerous task.  
"I...don't have anyone. I'm alone." Minato draws out, "I've been here before, know how to get away...besides, you two aren't in the least bit dangerous."  
Akihiko wonders if that last bit is an insult, but finds himself disregarding the statement as he notices the peak of a sharpened tooth from within Minato's maw.

"EVERYDAAAY!!" Miki continues and Akihiko finds it that with her willpower, he'll be coming back whether he likes it or not. They did come here everyday already, but now there could be an honest purpose.

"I..." Minato squeezes his ankles, "I um, I will see you soon. P-promise!"  
"I'll hold you to that, Akihiko." Minato drawls, slowly unfurling his fingers and sinking back into the water. Akihiko thinks to call out to him again, but Minato is long gone. The final traces of his present washing away with a flick of his long tail and a roll of a wave.

"Aww..." Miki wades over to him, "He left."

Even after all of that, Akihiko questions whether or not any of it was real.

 

The day continues /almost/ normally.  
He walks Miki to school as usual, only with the added one-sided conversation about mermaids (Miki being the main speaker.)  
He goes to school himself, without mentioning any mermaids, but with an added silence that is entirely uncharacteristic of himself. 

At some point in the day, he decides that he'll be returning to the sea much sooner than he'd originally planned. 

 

The moon rocks back and forth atop the ocean tides, bobbing up and down like a buoy tethered only to the sky. Akihiko finds his skin illuminated by such light, his skin riddled with goosebumps as he wades over to a rock near the deeper threads of the sea. It was crazy to be out here so late, Miki tucked into bed, the city a blanket of darkness without a single soul awake, he wonders if mermaids are nocturnal. Probably not.

"Minato?" He squeaks, feeling his heart sink deeper the more he thought about the results of his nightly expedition. "I c-came back." He continues.  
"So it seems." There's a familiar grip at his ankles, even as he sits on a rock, but this time he doesn't flinch away.  
"Oh, man, I didn't expect you to come back...it's late." Akihiko murmurs, rubbing the back of his neck shyly.  
"Mmm," he hums, "Humans are curious, too curious...I expected at least one of you would come back."  
Akihiko smiles, Minato was pretty observant. Perhaps he really had come across other humans before.  
"Miki's in bed, so it's...it's just me tonight." He drops his hands to cling at the rock, smiling at Minato in a goofy fashion. "Like, what kind of mermaid...thing are you? I--I read up on lots of mermaid stuff in the books at school a-and I didn't find anything good. Just dumb kid stuff." Akihiko huffs and Minato responds with a dry sort of laugh, rolling his eyes beneath his bangs. 

"There's not anything accurate about...mermaids, in...books." Minato contemplates, having to work over the words. The humans he had been in the company of in the past might have informed him of this, otherwise, Akihiko cannot fathom as to how Minato would know. "I guess you could say, I'm a siren...but not entirely." Akihiko finds that the other's explanation is rather cryptic.  
"Oh, like the one's that sing! Sometimes people think that err, all the mer-people are like that, but I figured they weren't. So like, can..uh...what happens when you sing? Is it magic?"  
"Sorta."  
"Sorta...?"  
"You don't want to know." 

That went well.  
Akihiko crosses his arms, finding the curiosity that Minato had mentioned burning in his stomach like coals.  
"I wanna know! I didn't even think...mermaids were real and stuff! I want to know more about what all you can do, I promise I can take whatever happens, I'm not as weak as you think." Akihiko tries puffing out his chest to seem more tough looking, earning a rather amused glance from the mermaid. Minato flicks his tail, stirring up the water as he thinks.

"Fine."  
Akihiko leans forwards, excitement totally akin to his sister shimmering in the sanguine pools of his eyes. Minato looks at him askance, "But, don't say I didn't warn you."

What comes next isn't exactly singing, but the magic is definitely there.  
Akihiko barely even registers the sound, whatever it was, only moments into the tune he finds himself slipping away. It's as if his ears were slowly filling with water, soaking into his brain and reducing him to a thoughtless nothing. He stutters but no real words come out, only weak sounds of confusion that fade quickly. Minato continues what can only be assumed is a song, Akihiko finds that the world around him matters less and less, all that was left was that strange creature he had only just met named Minato. Minato Minato Minato. Typically, as an eight year old little boy, he's not inclined to find other boys as "pretty" but, Minato is very very pretty. A smile tugs at Akihiko's lips and he doesn't even notice that he's being pulled into the water, the hands once clasped around his ankles rising to pull him forwards.  
He doesn't drown, nor does he swim, it feels more like dancing.  
His mind blankly informs him that it's dancing, he's dancing with a beautiful fish boy and nothing in the world could be more perfect. Laughter bubbles up in his throat and he sinks forever into the warmth and absolute strangeness of everything around him.

With a start, he wakes up on the beach, soaked through his clothes.  
The night was over and done, the sun rising slowly in the sky. He blinks several times, sitting up and looking around in confusion. What had happened to him? Where was Minato? His thoughts are interrupted as the familiar wails of his sister echoes out into the space.  
"AKI! It's not fair you came out early to see the mermaid!" She complains, stomping over to him and huffing loudly, "You dummy, he's not even out here! You should have waited! Why're you...wet? Did you try and swim out to him! I thought you didn't like him." She goes on and on but Akihiko is barely listening. His eyes scanning the water for the familiar shape of the boy, Miki realizing he wasn't listening at all with a cry of frustration.

"MINATO!" She cries, and in a few minutes, he's there to heed her call.  
She waves at him and Akihiko stares out in confusion. 

The words, "I told you so," are written all over Minato's face and Akihiko confirms that his and his sister's lives are about to change. 

She goes splashing out into the tide, turning only to face Akihiko once more, "C'mon bubby. He's waiting." 

Akihiko slowly rises from the sand and follows her out.


End file.
